Despite its utility as an oxygen-atom transfer reagent for transition metals, nitrous oxide (N2O) is a notoriously poor ligand, and its coordination chemistry has been limited to a few terminal, end-on kappa(1)-N complexes. Here, the synthesis of a mononuclear cobalt complex possessing a side-on-bound N2O molecule is reported. Structural characterization, IR spectroscopy, and DFT calculations support an eta(2) -N,N binding mode for binding of N2O to the cobalt center.